


Idle Dream

by couragethecowardlycunt, theominousdong



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Art Student Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, M/M, Minor Matt Holt/Shiro, POV Keith (Voltron), Pidge is a genius, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, birds are fun, keith and shiro roommates, matt and pidge are roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-06-19 04:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15502614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/couragethecowardlycunt/pseuds/couragethecowardlycunt, https://archiveofourown.org/users/theominousdong/pseuds/theominousdong
Summary: A few days after you meet your soulmate, anything they write on their skin will appear on yours and vice versa. As people grow up more and more find their soulmate, but Keith has yet to meet his and it's tearing him apart.





	1. Chapter one: where the fuck am I

**Author's Note:**

> huuuuu

I sat up slowly in my small bed feeling an excruciating ache in my head as I shifted to look out the window. The view was blinding, an obnoxious glare reflected off the snow, making the pain worse. I closed the curtains and turned towards the rest of the room. There were empty beer cans and crumpled papers lying scattered across the carpet. Yet another night passed by not making any progress with my art block, I see. I felt something cold in the sheets and pulled my laptop out from under them, I opened it and saw several bird care tutorial tabs open. I closed my laptop again and slid out of bed, after putting some pants and a shirt on I walked out to the kitchen.

“Morning, you’re just in time for a filling lunch of stale frosted flakes with tap water instead of milk and later, a light snack of tears from a broke and depressed college student.” This handsome man with some of the darkest eyebags I have ever seen is Shiro. 

Name: Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane  
Age: 24  
Studying: psychology  
Relation to Keith: brother and roommate  
Soulmate: Matt Holt  
Hobbies include: crying, helping people in need, working out, and spending time with his friends  
Sexuality: Pansexual

“Yummy.” I said rubbing my head and heading for the cabinet that kept the pain killers.

“Hangover?” He asked.

“A little bit I guess.” I said looking over my shoulder and spotting a giant penis appearing on his arm.

“Looks like Matt’s leaving you a present.” I opened the cabinet and took out the container, popping two of them into my mouth followed by a glass of water.

“Are you kidding me. Well joke’s on him, I happen to like dick, but he’s going to have a big penis on his arm too.” Almost as if he was in the room writing appeared below the drawing ‘I used an invisible ink pen fucker.’ Shiro sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“You don’t have class today right? What are you doing up so early?”

“I’m going to head to the studio and work on a few things.” I turned around and grabbed an apple before walking to the front door. “See you later.” I said putting my shoes on and leaving the apartment.

I’m Keith, uh, unlike Shiro I don’t really have any eye catching qualities about me I guess you could say.  
Name: Keith Kogane  
Age: 21  
Studying: Art  
Relation to Keith: Is Keith? Duh.  
Soulmate: N/A  
Hobbies include: Art, sleeping, reading about bird care, and drinking alcohol  
Sexuality: Extremely gay

I walked into the studio and took in the smell of the various art products that had been recently used. I looked around and it was relatively empty people usually didn’t come in the afternoon, let alone in the middle of winter when it’s snowing, so it wasn’t strange to only see one other person there. I sat down next to her and pulled out my sketchpad and pencils. I stayed quiet, letting her work on her painting, even if I had spoken up I knew Allura wouldn’t notice until she broke her own concentration.

Name: Allura  
Age: 24  
Studying: Art  
Relation to Keith: Best and pretty much only friend in his department  
Soulmate: Unknown  
Hobbies include: Art, caring for her pet mice, reading, listening to music  
Sexuality: Bisexual

I thought about what to draw, but nothing was coming to mind. All I could think about was if it was ever going to be possible for me to find my own soulmate, one who I could joke around with like Shiro and Matt. No, I guess that’s impossible. The world is too big for that and I know I’d just end up making them unhappy.

“Keith, you’re talking aloud again.” Allura said, I jumped as her voice echoed through the building.

“Oh, sorry about that.” I looked back down at my still blank paper.

“It’s okay, I was losing concentration anyway.” I saw her shift her body towards me out of the corner of my eye. “Listen Keith, I understand how you feel. It’s tough not finding your soulmate when others around you have. It’s painful and you feel left behind or left out, but what’s most important in these times is to remember that there is someone out there, someone who may be concerned just like you are.”

“But what if they aren’t?” I asked. “What if we never find each other?” Allura is one of the only people other than Shiro that I can open up to.

“Then you just need to get out there and find them yourself.” She said firmly. “It’s not going to be easy, nothing worthwhile is ever going to be easy.”

 

I nodded my head. I knew what she was trying to say, and I truly appreciated it but I still felt stuck in my head. “I just don’t know what to do anymore Allura.”

“You need to get out there is what you need to do. I know this totally isn’t your thing but there’s a party tonight at one of my friend’s house, just come for a little while, meet some new people.” She suggested, I didn’t know if this was a ploy to get me to go to a party or to actually cheer me up. Probably both.

“I don’t know Allura, what are the chances that this person will be there even if I do go, do you know how many people are on this planet?” 

“Oh just shut up, do you want to look for your soulmate or not? You can even bring shiro along.” I sighed.

“Things like this just never end well for me, Allura.”

She began packing her things up, “Well I’ll meet you by your place by 8 if you don’t come out you’re in trouble, I’ll text Shiro and tell him he’s coming.” I sighed, there was no use in arguing with her, once she’s made up her mind there’s not much you can do to change it

“Oh about that, I don’t think Shiro’s going to come. See it’s date night for him and Matt sooo.” I said, watching her pack her unused brushes away.

“Of course, when do they not have a “date night”, they’re so weird. Guess I’m stuck babysitting you then.” She sighed and slung her bag over her shoulder.

“What do you mean babysitting? You’re the one that wanted me to go so badly.”

“Yeah yeah, says the one who’s upset about not finding his soulmate even though he doesn’t leave the house. Anyway, like I said, I’ll be at your apartment around 6, wear something that makes that butt of yours look good. Bye bye.” With that she walked out of the studio doors.

She’s probably going to regret taking me in the morning, I always find a way to ruin a perfectly good time. Oh well, it’s not really my problem anyway. Honestly, I do wish that I had the chance to go to parties but I always feel differently when I get there. They’re just way too loud and reek of cheap alcohol.

I checked my watch, 4:35, if I wanted to shower I should probably get going now. I looked at my pad of paper, nothing on it but small pencil marks from my impatient tapping. Here for almost two hours and I still have nothing accomplished. I closed it and grabbed my things before heading back to the apartment.

When I walked back in I heard the distinguished sound of Shiro yelling and Matt laughing. I walked into the living room and saw a small clone of Matt on top of Shiro. Matt looked over at me, tears in his eyes, “Oh hey Keith, welcome back.”

Name: Matthew “Matt” Holt  
Age: 23  
Studying: Biomedical engineering  
Relation to Keith: Brother’s soulmate  
Soulmate: Shiro  
Hobbies include:  
Sexuality: Gay

“Uh, hey.” He saw me staring at the small child looking person on top of my brother.

“Oh that’s my little sister, Pidge. Looks just like me doesn’t she? Pidge, that’s Shiro’s brother, Keith.” He said.

Name: Katie “Pidge” Holt  
Age: 17  
Studying: Computer engineering  
Relation to Keith: Brother’s soulmate’s sister/Matt’s sister  
Soulmate: unknown   
Hobbies include: Beating up whoever makes fun of her height, tinkering, climbing in the vents.  
Sexuality: Pansexual

“Hey edge lord.” Was all she said to me. I nodded in acknowledgement.

“Right, so why is she standing on top of Shiro?” I asked.

“I had been talking about how strong she had gotten since the last time I saw her and Shiro didn’t believe me so I’m having her prove it.” 

“Oh makes sense. Well when they’re done tell Shiro I’m going out later and won’t be in until late tonight depending on how much I drink.” I said as I stepped away from Shiro getting his ass kicked to go take a shower.

“Wait you don’t mean alone to a bar right?” Matt said, putting a concerned hand on my shoulder. Shiro must have told him about the art rut I’m in, although it’s been a while since I broke that drinking habit so he must be concerned.

“Nah, I’m pretty done with those days. I’m going to a party with Allura, you know her right?” I said.

“Yeah I do, who doesn’t? But that’s good, we’d be worried if you went out on your own.” I nodded and walked away. I forgot that Shiro and Matt were together when I was going through… that.

I grabbed the first change of clothes I saw that looked clean enough along with a clean pair of underwear and brought them into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and waited for it to warm up before stepping in and washing my hair and body. It didn’t take long for me to finish in the shower and I drew back the curtain. I grabbed the clean towel that hung on the towel rack and rubbed my hair a few times, trying to dry in enough so it wasn’t dripping everywhere. I finished drying off and put my clothes on. I walked out of the bathroom with the towel still draped over my head.

Just as I was about to turn the corner into the living room I heard Matt talking. “Well I mean it’s not like he’s the only one, plenty of people haven’t found their soulmate yet. Pidge hasn’t, and neither has our other roommate. I don’t think it’s something to worry about.”

“I know but I’m just worried, you know sometimes he just gets this look on his face, like he’s losing all hope, like he could fall back into that place he was a last year in a second. Nothing I say seems to get through to him, nothing anyone says does. I just wish he would find someone soon, maybe then… maybe then he’d be a bit happier than he seems to be with me.” Shiro trailed off. I never liked to eavesdrop but I couldn’t help it.

“Just let things play out on their own for now, I know that you want to help but you can’t force him.” 

“Yeah, I guess. But when did you get another roommate? I mean I knew Pidge was going to live with you when she graduated but there’s a third?” Shiro asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah he just moved in recently, I guess his last roommate moved away and he couldn’t pay rent on his own and we happened to have an extra room.” Matt’s voice faded as I walked back to my room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeah can i get a ummm a uhhhh keithwithhishairtiedback

I need to stop being so self-centered, I’m worrying everyone around me. I saw headlights flash through the open curtains, then I heard a car door slam. Must be Allura. I checked my watch, 5:45, she was early. I put on my worn out knockoff boots, grabbed my wallet, and walked to the door. “I’ll see you guys later.” I shouted over my shoulder as I closed the door behind me. I walked down the stairs, meeting Allura halfway. She walked around me, eyeing my clothes.

“Not bad, but pretty bland.” She said.

“What can I say, I have a minimalist wardrobe. Anyway what kind of party starts this early?” I said as we stepped outside, the sky was almost completely dark and most of the snow from this morning had already melted. I shoved my hands in my coat pocket and watched my breath drift up towards the sky.

“None, I hope you brought your wallet cause we’re going to the mall.” She said excitedly as we walked to her car.

“What? But the closest mall is like forty minutes from here.” I complained. I really wasn’t that big a fan of the mall. We didn’t really live in a small place, just that all the stores were relatively small.

“Well I want to go shopping and hang out with you. What would you prefer, going to the mall and hanging out with your best friend in the entire world or sit alone in your room as you listen to Matt and Shiro fuck in the other room?” She was exaggerating but she had a point. I sighed, releasing another white cloud of breath.

“Fine.” I said, I had just gotten paid from my job so I had a bit of money to spend.

“Oh also we’re getting you a new outfit, if you do end up meeting your soulmate you don’t want to look like well… that.” She said indicating to my clothes as we stepped into the car. I looked down at my clothes, and she was right. They weren’t anything special, and there were paint stains all over them.

Allura drove and sang along to music while I looked out the window. The sky was starting to get cloudy again, the clouds blocking out the moon, only leaving a hazy outline.

I wondered what it would be like, to finally find my soulmate. Would it be nice having little words written on my skin by someone else, someone that could be miles away, or would it be aggravating? I sighed, do I even have a soulmate? Is it possible for me to be loved, and open up to anyone that isn’t myself?

“Stop it.” I heard Allura say next to me.

“Stop what?”

“You were thinking about your soulmate again weren’t you?” She glanced over at me.

“I mean yeah but how can I not?” 

“Listen Keith, I know you want to find this guy, and I want you to find him too, but it does you no good to wallow in self pity about it. I’m telling you I’ve got a really good feeling about this party. So why not just let things flow on their own instead of trying to force them to?” She parked the car in a parking space and smiled at me.

“Alright, I’ll try.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car and stretching. I yawned and looked at my the clock on my phone, 6:37, there was still like four hours before it was socially acceptable for us to show up. Personally I wished we could show up real late that way no one bothers to greet us, no weird introductions, and less time required to stay there. Maybe I’ll just leave early, I’d feel bad for ditching Allura but she’ll probably end up forgetting I was there. 

“If you leave early from this party I won’t forgive you.” Is she a psychic or demon? Much too pretty to be a demon, but shouldn’t demons be pretty so they can tempt humans? I laughed to myself at the thought. Well thinking one of your good friends is a demon is better than dwelling on something you can’t control.

We stepped into the mall and I was immediately filled with dread. Of course it would be busy, it’s Friday evening, a bunch of people are here getting ready for the weekend. Allura continued walking and I followed behind her.

“Okay Keith time to find you an outfit that’s not completely trash. That shouldn’t be too hard right? Just got to find primarily black clothes.” She walked into a store, I sighed and followed after her this is going to be a long night. “First let’s start with some pants.” She dragged me along store to store picking out what totalled to be two pairs of pants, several shirts and a deep red silk bomber jacket.

“Well that took a pretty big chunk out of my wallet.” I checked my phone again for the fiftieth time that night, it was almost 8:40, we had been in the mall for like three hours and all the shops were getting ready to close.

“You’re so whiny sometimes. Let’s go get some food and then you can change, there’s still a couple things I want to do with your face and I want to change into the outfit I got.” We stopped at the food court and got some trashy food microwaved by some angsty teenagers. We finished eating and I was pushed towards the bathroom.

I chose the standard distressed black jeans and a black t-shirt, I kept my knockoff black timbs on and put the jacket on on top of the shirt. I grabbed the shopping bag with my old clothes shoved in it and walked back to the table where Allura was sitting pulling out makeup products. 

“Oh great you’re back, watch my stuff I’m gonna go put my clothes on now too.” I sat down in front of her purse and various products and waited for her to come back. About ten minutes later I looked up and saw Allura walking towards me in an entirely new outfit. She had changed into a pair of ripped skinny jeans with fishnet stockings underneath and a pink cropped hoodie, with the same white adidas sneakers as before. Her hair was styled in a half up half down style but with space buns.

Allura sat back down in her seat and looked over my hair and face. “Come over here.” She said indicating to the seat next to her. I did as she said and stood up, pulling out the chair next to her. “Alright now face me.” She produced a black hair tie from her purse and started running her hands through my messy hair. “Why the hell is your hair so knotted and when was the last time you brushed it?”

“Uhhh, I don’t remember.” I tried to recall. She sighed and pulled a small brush from her bag as well. 

“Use this.” She said and I tried to tackle the knots without success. “That’s good enough.” I handed her back the brush and she went back to running her hands in my hair. She pulled as much as she could to the back of my head, she wrapped the tie around it revealing the nape of my neck. A good deal of my bangs still hung in front of my face.

“What’s the point of having my hair pulled back if it’s still in my face?” I usually brought clips with me when painting to keep it out of my face so having it tied back for something other than practicality was foreign to me.

“Listen Keith, I’m going to tell you this because you’re my friend and I know even if I say it you won’t change it so it doesn’t matter in the end, but the mullet is not a good look.” She said pulling her hands away from my neck. I frowned at her response, she patted my cheek and smiled before turning back to her bag.

“Then why don’t you cut it for me.” I said sarcastically.

“I mean I can but it won’t look much better. Anyway with it up you can’t tell it’s a mullet and it looks pretty hot if I do say so myself.” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah yeah whatever. Wait what’s that?” I asked when I saw her bring out a thin pencil like thing, something that looked like an ink bottle, and what I knew to be mascara.

“This is an eyebrow pencil, this is a lip tint, and then this is mascara.” She said holding up each of them in order. I picked up the ink bottle when she put it down and read the side: cloud ink velvet. I looked on the bottom for a color and read pure apricot coral.

“So can I go sit back on my side now if you’re going to do your makeup?” I asked.

“Oh no this is for you. Don’t worry it’s nothing major.” She took the cap off the pencil.

“Well shit my dude.” I said as she brought it towards my face. I didn’t know how still I had to stay for any of this so I chose the safer option and sat unmoving. 

“You don’t have to be so rigid it’s fine, I know what I’m doing.” She finished both of my brows and put the pencil down. She sat back a bit and looked at my face. “I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to resort to this but they need to be groomed bad.” She produced a pair of tweezers from her bag.

“Oh hell no.” I said trying to spare myself a little bit of pain.

“You’re fine, I won’t do too much only a little bit.” I made a face at her. “Don’t be a baby it won’t take long.” I whined again but allowed her to get closer. She was right when she said it wouldn’t take long but it hurt like all hell.

“Are you finished yet?” I asked after about two minutes.

“Just about.” Another two minutes passed and she set down the tweezers. “Now I’m done. Fast huh?”

“Uh yeah I guess.” I mentioned and massaged my eyebrows.

“I didn’t do much, I only cleaned up the edges really. Ok now only one last thing.” she picked up the ink thing again.

“So why are you putting lipstick on me?” I asked.

“This is a bit different, what it does is pretty much sits on your lips and then as it wears off it’s already stained your lips so the color stays. This is a kind of coral color so it won’t look like you’re wearing super red lipstick.” I nodded and she opened the container.

“Wait you’re not going to just swipe it on like you would lipstick right?”

“No Keith, now part your lips a bit.” I reluctantly did as she said. She dabbed the applicator on the inside of my lips. “Now pop them.”

I popped my lips until she told me to stop. She examined me for a second longer. “Is it acceptable?”

“It’s perfect.” She said and gave me a mirror. I looked nothing like my usual self, my eyebrows looked fuller but neat, my lips looked amazing if I did say so myself. It had a gradient affect starting from the inside of my lips.

“I like it.” I said.

“Then you fussed over nothing. Now let me put on my makeup and we can head back.” I nodded and checked my phone once again, 9:30, it took us almost and hour just to get changed and put shit on my face.

It didn’t take Allura long to put makeup on, she was really just touching up what she had on already, and so we were heading to the party in no time.

When we arrived it was already a quarter to eleven and the party was in full swing. The music was blaring and there were people everywhere, great, just the place I said I’d never come to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tiddies

**Author's Note:**

> I had this posted a couple months ago but I deleted it for who knows what reason so she's back for a limited time only fellas


End file.
